Editorial: Stop fighting against faith

Are there indeed no atheists in foxholes? The accuracy of this well-known statement depends on the individual in the foxhole — or it should.

What should not be a determinant in foxhole faith — or the lack thereof — is an oppressive crackdown by the U.S. military upon religious freedom, which, contrary to some, does and should exist among the armed forces.

Religion and the U.S. military have been thrown together recently following a meeting last month between Pentagon officials and Mikey Weinstein, president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, based in Albuquerque, N.M. Weinstein, who spent a decade in the U.S. Air Force as a military attorney, is adamant there are thousands of members of the U.S. military who are victims of “spiritual rape” — according to the MRFF website.

Weinstein considers soldiers guilty of proselytizing also guilty of treason, and contends such soldiers should face a court martial.

It remains to be seen what, if any, impact MRFF will have on U.S. military policy.

There is a fine line between proselytizing and prohibiting the rights of U.S. soldiers to practice their faith, and throwing out words such as “rape” and “religious predators” to describe one particular faith — in this case, Christians — certainly does not instill faith in MRFF’s objectivity.

It is worth asking what place military chaplains, which have been around since the founding of the nation, would have in MRFF’s faith-free version of the military.

On its website, MRFF favors a strict interpretation of the U.S. Constitution, correctly stating “there is no mention of Christianity or any other religion.”

True.

MRFF also states the presidential oath of office, according to the Constitution, originally did not include Christian views — and the Pledge of Allegiance did not include “under God.”

Also true.

However, this strict constitutional interpretation by MRFF does not seem to apply to the phrase “separation of church and state,” which MRFF strongly supports — but yet is not found anywhere in the U.S. Constitution.

If MRFF is going to stick specifically to the words in the U.S. Constitution to justify its goals, fine. Don’t pick and choose.

And speaking of specific words, the troubling descriptions of Christians in the U.S. military used by MRFF make it extremely difficult to assume its goals are legitimate and sincere.